


What makes a person?

by Starlight_Adventurer



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Mink AU, Usopp gets angsty about his dad, Usopp-centric (One Piece)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25787194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlight_Adventurer/pseuds/Starlight_Adventurer
Summary: Based on the Mink AU by @choppercore (twitter)!Usopp thinks about his dad.He has some realisations about who he is and who the important people in his life are.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	What makes a person?

**Author's Note:**

> Another oneshot written for my OP School Zine application!
> 
> I love @choppercore's Mink AU and I got permission to write this.  
> It was super fun to write!  
> Please check out the work on twitter! The art is super good!

What makes a person?

Is it where they have come from? Is it who they have become through living their life?

Usopp found himself asking those exact questions in front of the bathroom mirror that morning.

The slow dripping of the leaky tap sounded in time with his internal mantra. Each ‘drip’ accentuated every individual part of his mental spiral, like a buzzer signalling the end of each thought’s designated time within his head; the echo that followed them made the almost empty bathroom feel even lonelier, as if Usopp was standing in a tiled room that stretched out over miles instead of just a few metres.

Is it their parents?

Usopp met his own gaze in the reflection. The subdued expression on both of their faces made him sigh listlessly. 

He was a sheep mink. His fur was fluffy and soft like a cloud. The curly hair on his head, cuffs and ankles were pitch-black cotton. People sometimes asked him what it was like to basically wear a woolly hat, socks and wristbands all the time; it sucked during the summer but it was a blessing in winter. He would, however, never complain about any of his sheep-y characteristics because they were gifts from his mom.

Usopp could remember the velvety texture of her fur. All of the memories filled with blanketing hugs and readily given affection were a rose-tinted album inside of his head. The small smile they brought to his face was worth this bittersweet aftertaste they left in his heart.

He was a sheep mink. A short and simple fact…

So why were his horns straight?

Ram horns were curled, another straightforward fact. Usopp, as a ram, should have crescent shaped horns too.

He tilted his head to better see the anomalous features. Nice and pointy horns. Usopp ran the tips of his fingers along their bumpy surface; he took the time to trace over every hill and valley on his journey from root to tip. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant but something about doing it in that moment made him queasy.

Unlike the multitude of mental snapshots featuring his mom, Usopp could list the things he knew about his dad on his fingers. His dad was a pirate, a sniper, etc…

He was also a goat mink.

Usopp thought back on the first time he had had to explain to a member of the crew why his horns were straight. He hadn’t minded Luffy’s curiosity at the time and had happily answered.

‘Yeah, I’m part goat!’

Given that Luffy knew his dad, Usopp wondered why he had even asked.

It had also been part of a larger conversation about his dad that Usopp had been ecstatic about having. Now, however, every word came rushing back in a tidal wave that flooded his brain. The ocean crashed against his eardrums, making Usopp’s ears twitch violently.

He struggled to discern singular thoughts; it felt like his own mind was drowning. Yet, one kept repeating in the background of it all like a broken record. It was a grating crescendo that accompanied the strengthening invisible chokehold on his throat.

‘He’ll come back.’

Those words were his greatest lie. They were the childish hopes of a boy who had clung to the glorified image of the only family he had left. Usopp still traced his route through Syrup Village in his dreams; or, were they his nightmares? The sounds of his running footfalls, the sensation of every beating step that covered more distance as he grew older, the scratchiness of his throat after he yelled himself hoarse with threats of people he had truly wished were there - Usopp could remember it all with crystal clear clarity.

Too bad crystals could be rather fragile.

Usopp pressed down on the ends of his horns, testing their strength, and sighed when they remained the same in his reflection.

Looking back on his childhood, Usopp questioned how he had ever been so silly. His dad had chosen to leave them and his mom had been accepting, even proud, of this choice. To her final moments, when her fur had lost its spongy smoothness and her smile was cracking under the weight of her illness, she had regaled him with tales of his dad’s adventures and their life together before he answered the ‘call of the sea’. 

He changed the grip on his horns so that his palms lined the slight curve of their underside while his fingers applied pressure to the sides. The feeling grounded him against the rapidly growing tension squeezing his skull. Usopp felt the urge to push upwards on his horns, partly out of curiosity on whether it would help any more with the pain while another part of him wanted to test how much they could take without breaking.

How much he could take without breaking.

The headache got worse. Usopp’s breathing picked up with it. He grimaced at his reflection before turning away from the mirror. His legs quaked as he hunched over next to the sink, in a crouched position. The shaking of his knees felt like it rattled the rest of his skeleton.

The tiled floor beneath his feet went in and out of focus with each repetition of the mental mantra. Its sky blue colour made him think of a puddle - or an ocean by how much he was swaying - that the tap was dripping into.

He didn’t know what came over him. Usopp’s thoughts stalled long enough that the idea of pushing up onto his horns seemed like a good one. The sensation of his own shoving and that of the tiled floor slipping out from under him failed to register until he fell nose first into the ground. The stinging pain that followed was enough to place his train of thought back on track.

However, the train also brought the realisation that his nose was bleeding onto the floor tiles as he sat up and rested on his ankles. The crimson liquid dripped offbeat to the tap, creating a nauseating melody that rebounded off the walls. The hold on his horns was still present. Usopp let go of them and flexed his hands while resting them on his lap.

He ignored the puddle to stare at the wool on his wrists. Usopp ran his still twitching fingers through the inky curls. The fur heated slightly under the friction as his hands rubbed against them faster and faster until he wasn’t sure if he could stop. The cycle of up and down movements went on for what could have been hours; Usopp didn’t even try to count the seconds since the beginning of his mental spiral.

Then came a knock at the bathroom door.

“Hey Usopp! Are you still in there? Me and Chopper want to play tag,” Luffy’s voice came from the other side of the door. He sounded excited, an emotion running perpendicular to the downward path of Usopp’s stomach.

“Yeah… Just give me a minute,” Usopp replied around the lump in his throat.

He mentally cursed the shakiness of his words when Luffy asked in concern, “Did something happen? You sound kind of weird.”

“No, nope. Everything’s fine,” Usopp lied as he stood up on his unsure legs. He glanced around in the hope that there would be something within arms reach to wipe away the blood. This hope was dashed when the bathroom door clicked open and Luffy’s head popped through the newly created gap.

The pair wordlessly blinked at each other for a few moments before Luffy took in more of Usopp’s disheveled appearance. The latter cringed under the scrutiny and wiped away the still flowing blood using his forearm, uncaring at the sticky stain it left on his fur, as he tried again, “I just fell and landed on my face. I do it a lot, remember.” He flailed his arms while he spoke, ignoring the twinge in his wrists, and offered, “I’ll be out in a minute, why don’t you guys get a head start?”

None of this stopped the worried expression on Luffy’s face changing into one that he only wore when he was serious. Usopp gulped as his friend stepped into the room and let the door click behind him as he leant against it. He opened his mouth to question Luffy’s actions but was stopped when he was softly ordered, “Tell me the truth Usopp.”

Usopp opened and closed his mouth a few times, multiple lies falling dead on the tip of his tongue, before choosing to remain silent. He refused to meet Luffy’s hard stare. The puddle of blood beneath his foot became far too interesting in that moment. The singular dripping of the leaky tap was the only sound in the room.

Luffy’s sandaled foot eventually stepped into his field of vision; it came to a stop right in front of the puddle. His tail wiggled into the foreground of Usopp’s downcast perspective before going further past it to curve around one of his wrists. It gently tugged at the fleecy joint to coax it away from Usopp’s side. Its movements got more confident when Usopp didn’t protest and it wound itself around his bloodstained forearm.

Seeing his own blood soak into Luffy’s fur somehow made the situation more real inside Usopp’s head. The fact that Luffy’s hand joined his tail in holding his wrist did nothing to stop the pathetic sound bubbling its way up to his throat.

Luffy was a monkey mink. That was a short and simple fact. Everything about him said that he was a monkey mink, from his tail to his fur to his ability to climb anywhere he wanted to go (like Usopp’s heart). 

Usopp sniffled, uncaring of the fresh blood the action caused to leave his nose. Tears blurred his vision as the tail tugged at his arm in tandem with Luffy’s hand. Luffy pulled him into a hug as salty droplets began to dampen the fur of Usopp’s cheeks. 

Nevertheless, Luffy nuzzled their cheeks together. The attempt to physically comfort him was the only thing Usopp’s brain needed to let the dam break and have him sink fully into a crying fit. His hands scrabbled at the back of Luffy’s waistcoat as he verbalised his feelings in the way of choked half made thoughts and strangled sobs.

At some point during the break down, Usopp’s internal mantra had veered away from his dad. His thoughts had quieted to a singular mellow voice. It gently crooned in his ears as his sobbing fit trailed off into the occasional hiccup.

While Usopp couldn’t say that he was fully one kind of mink, he was one of a kind. He was his own person. He was his mom’s son and the Mugiwara’s sniper; Usopp knew he didn’t want to be anything else when Luffy’s embrace tightened around him. The feeling was answered by a similar escalation that clearly meant:

‘I’m glad you were the one that came for me.’

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked this! Wish me luck with the zine application.  
> Please comment and tell me your thoughts.


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